New inertial measurement unit

28/02/2019

STMicroelectronics has introduced the ISM330DLC six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU), which extends the company’s family of ultra low-power microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors for industrial applications. Containing a three-axis accelerometer and a three-axis gyroscope with user-selectable full-scale up to ±16 g and ±2000 dps, respectively, the ISM330DLC provides high measurement resolution and smart energy-saving features to enable long-lasting battery-powered industrial devices. Suitable for applications such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems, robots, drones, platform stabilisers and telematics, its accelerometer bandwidth of up to 3 kHz also allows for its use in vibration monitoring and compensation systems.

The ISM330DLC consumes 0.5 mA in normal combination mode and 0.75 mA in high-performance mode. Other features include a large integrated FIFO that lets the host system retrieve data efficiently, smart features and interrupts, including tilt detection, free-fall, wakeup, 6D/4D orientation, click and double-click. There is also a sensor hub feature for collecting data from additional external sensors.

Industrial-grade design features include a dedicated configurable low-latency signal processing path, low noise and filtering optimised to ensure closed-loop control stability. The signal path can be independently configured to make gyroscope or accelerometer data available through an auxiliary serial peripheral interface (SPI). The ISM330DLC also contains a temperature sensor and built-in self-test, both for the gyroscope and the accelerometer.